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No Mercy (1999)
No Mercy (1999) was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). It took place on October 17, 1999, at the Gund Arena in Cleveland, Ohio. Nine matches, including three championship matches, took place at the event. In the first, The Fabulous Moolah won the WWF Women's Championship from Ivory to become the oldest champion in professional wrestling history. In the second, Chyna defeated Jeff Jarrett to win the WWF Intercontinental Championship, becoming the first female Intercontinental Champion in WWF history. Lastly, Triple H defeated Stone Cold Steve Austin to retain the WWF Championship. Also on the card was a tag team ladder match in which The New Brood (Matt Hardy and Jeff Hardy) defeated Edge and Christian. The previous No Mercy event was held in May while the next edition was moved to October as Insurrextion took No Mercy's place. No Mercy replaced Judgment Day: In Your House that was held in October 1998. Generally, reviews for the event were positive, with both SLAM! Wrestling and 411mania.com rating it eight out of ten. The tag team ladder match, in particular, received very positive reviews from critics. Production Background Vince Russo and his writing partner, Ed Ferrara, watched The Jerry Springer Show for ideas to develop into WWF storylines. Some of the wrestlers also were involved with writing their own storylines. For example, the four competitors in the tag team ladder match made the decision for their rivalry to involve a "best-of" series. The plan was to originally do a "best-of-seven" series, but it was later changed to five. They had the whole match planned, including all of the stunts. In addition, Pat Patterson was the booker for the event. Before the event, Jeff Jarrett was on his way out of the company, as management felt he had been a bad investment for the company. Vince McMahon, the WWF Chairman, came up with the idea for Jarrett and Chyna to become involved in a storyline together. Vince Russo was asked to write the storyline leading up to the match, including when Jarrett would taunt Chyna and hit her with random household objects. The fans responded positively to the battle-of-the-sexes match-ups. They were originally supposed to have their match-up at Rebellion, but the WWF extended the storyline for another month due to its popularity. In the midst of the feud, Russo left the WWF for rival promotion World Championship Wrestling (WCW). In her autobiography If They Only Knew, Chyna implies that Russo was the person who convinced McMahon to delay their pay-per-view match for a month, because he knew Jarrett was also going to sign with WCW. Because of the delay, Jarrett's contract expired the day before the match, so he was not contractually required to wrestle at the event. Hours before the event began, Jarrett demanded (and received) somewhere between $300,000–500,000 to wrestle Chyna for the night. Storylines Nine professional wrestling matches were featured on the event's card. Matches were planned with predetermined outcomes by WWF's creative staff and featured wrestlers for the entertainment of the audience. Leading up to their match at No Mercy, Jeff Jarrett would taunt Chyna and hit her with random household objects. He also began a gimmick where he would degrade women, which involved him attacking female WWF employees. At Rebellion, Chyna defeated Jarrett by disqualification after the British Bulldog interfered and clotheslined Chyna. During this time, Jarrett also introduced Miss Kitty to be the valet for his manager Debra. Prior to No Mercy, The New Brood (Matt Hardy and Jeff Hardy) were in a rivalry with Edge and Christian and the two teams were in the midst of the Terri Invitational Tournament, where the winning team would win the managerial services of Terri Runnels. The series was a "best-of-five" and began on the September 30 episode of SmackDown! when Edge and Christian defeated The New Brood in the first match of the tournament. In the weeks proceeding the pay-per-view, the teams traded wins until both teams had two each. Therefore, the match at No Mercy would be the deciding match in the tournament. Triple H and Stone Cold Steve Austin were also feuding heading into the event. They had a Triple Threat match, also including The Undertaker, at the previous No Mercy pay-per-view in May; in the match, Austin defeated Triple H to retain the title. In the following months, the WWF Championship was traded back and forth amongst Austin, The Undertaker, Mankind, Triple H, and Vince McMahon. In late September at Unforgiven, Triple H won the championship in a match against five other wrestlers, including The Rock, with Austin as the Special Guest Referee. At the beginning of October at Rebellion, Triple H retained his title in a steel cage match against The Rock. Aftermath The Terri Invitational Tournament and the tag team ladder match between The New Brood (later known as The Hardy Boyz) and Edge and Christian elevated both teams. According to Matt Hardy, the match elevated them from "WWF wrestlers to WWF Superstars". Both teams received standing ovations the night of the match, as well as the following night on Raw is War. It also led to WWE utilizing ladder matches more frequently. After No Mercy, Jeff Jarrett left the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) and showed up on WCW Monday Nitro the next evening. Miss Kitty began accompanying Chyna to the ring for her matches. Kitty also began dressing like Chyna, including wearing a black wig, and became known as "Chynette". Chyna then began a rivalry with Chris Jericho over the championship. Chyna defeated Jericho at the subsequent pay-per-view Survivor Series in November to retain the title. Triple H held the WWF Championship until Survivor Series in November when he lost it to The Big Show in a Triple Threat match that also involved The Rock. Meanwhile, Stone Cold Steve Austin was written out of WWE storylines so he could have neck surgery. On-screen, his absence was attributed to being hit by a car. When he returned to television a year later, it was revealed that Rikishi had hit him with a car to allow The Rock to become champion. The Rock, however, did not win the championship until Backlash in April 2000. Later, though, it was revealed that the hit-and-run on Stone Cold Steve Austin was orchestrated by Triple H. Results Other on-screen personnel See also * List of WWE pay-per-view events * No Mercy Category:No Mercy Category:World Wrestling Entertainment pay-per-view events Category:1999 Pay-Per-View Events